The floor spilled with Swadeshi tiles & Qom silk rugs, the bohemian crystal chandeliers contained delicately placed oil lamps and the walls were covered with dusty, velveteen oil paintings of many deceased benefactors and local families. It read like a who’s who of Surat’s Parsi elite up until the mid-1900's. One room that I stumbled upon (and spent considerable time documenting) was that most spartan but personal of sites: The space where holy sacraments are given to elemental deities at different times of the year and also where young Mobeds (Zoroastrian priests) such as myself would’ve learned fire-keeping and practiced holy ceremonial teachings. Here we had humble Rajasthani Kota stone floors with stone benches where priests would solemnly sit cross-legged in their sheer muslin robes, praying and tending to the elements.

The room was vacant and I just walked in alone to discover three window shutters letting in rays of afternoon light that caught the smoky air particles to form dramatic beams against the silver chalices and landed gracefully toward the floor.

A tender place where one could sense the reverence of those who had just vacated the room. Luckily the priests must’ve been napping or having lunch at this time, so I managed to get around very easily today. The perfect finale to this non-pilgrim’s quest for spiritual iconography.

In March 2018 Areez Katki set off from his East Auckland home for Mumbai on a carefully conceived quest to trace his creative inheritance as the son of a Parsi Indian family with ancient Persian roots. Katki’s ruminations on what it means to be Parsi are inclusive of small acts of kindness and the razed ramparts of civilisations.

Bildungsroman parallels Katki’s grand tour journal, which conveys the sincere curiosity of an expatriate outsider prying into the closed Zoroastrian community with questions of gender, sexuality and politics in mind.

Marabar Caves
The Gus Fisher Gallery
August – September 2017Organised by Victoria Wynne-JonesPhotographs by Samuel Hartnett

Marabar Caves was an exhibition that took its title from the caves featured in E.M. Forster’s 1924 novel 'Passage to India.' This is the first exhibition in a series of three entitled ‘Resources of the Social Imagination’ by Victoria Wynne-Jones, which will look at the relationships between narrative pleasure and contemporary art. Narratives that are cosmological, geological and mythical combine to describe a space that is highly sculptural, one that becomes psychosexual with the aid of a colonial gaze.

Audio, ceramics, embroidery and exhibition design form a response to Forster's description of the caves. Areez Katki has investigated non-linguistic narrative techniques using synaesthesia and his applied arts textile practice. Devices designed to lean against and languish on have been constructed and embroidered upon for the exhibition.

Organised by Victoria Wynne-Jones.

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Dwelling

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Marabar Caves
The Gus Fisher Gallery
August – September 2017Organised by Victoria Wynne-JonesPhotographs by Samuel Hartnett

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Ravel Scroll: Daybreak

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Vanished Delft
The Pah Homestead
March – May 2017Curated by Anna MilesPhotographs by Samuel Hartnett

Areez Katki described his 5-metre-drop of hand-embroidered silk hanging in the Ball Room of Vanished Delft, as a synaesthesic response to the score of Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, a ballet based on the ancient Greek Longus’ novel of the same name. It was performed by the Ballet Russes in Paris in 1912, with sets designed by Leon Bakst. Katki discovered the music when he was traveling in the Basque Country of Spain, the region where Ravel was born.

His work predominantly uses chain stitch: “No other stitch has been as effective to express linear movement.” There are notes – embroidered in a dull grey thread – on the panel where he acknowledges Longus, the island of Lesbos – the setting of the novel – and roman numerals which correspond to the pages of the composition that Katki listened to. “Other than these small details, there is no concrete evidence of structure or narrative,” says Katki.

Extract from curatorial notes by Anna Miles

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Ravel Scroll: Daybreak

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Vanished Delft
The Pah Homestead
March – May 2017Curated by Anna MilesPhotographs by Samuel Hartnett

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Constantinople Dress

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Beauty Is In The Street
Ramp Gallery
April – June 2017

Cotton, Silk & Linen fibres / Mounting on pinewood dowels.

Sources: Turkey, Lebanon & India.

Treatments: Indigo, Madder, Tea (Ceylon) and Wine (NZ Merlot)

Hand knitted using intarsia colour-blocking and fair isle techniques.

The fabrication of Katki’s Constantinople Dress was an attempt to capture various sensations caused by movements through time and placement/displacement. Harnessing both emotional and physical responses to a setting he lived in, Areez created a series of abstract motifs knitted into a three-dimensional object.

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Constantinople Dress

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Beauty Is In The Street
Ramp Gallery
April – June 2017

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Vienna Series

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Presented at Objectspace
2016 - 2017

A series of hand-embroidered scarves on narrow hand-loomed silk noil. Annual edition of six scarves from the Vienna Series have been crafted by Areez each year since 2014, each numbered and dated.

An act of restraint during tactile productivity. The applied methodology for this series tie in with Katki’s reverence for motifs from the Viennese Secession movement.

Outer: French cotton thread on a selection of hand-woven cotton, linen and silk textiles that were sourced from India, Turkey and France.

Inner: Bamboo fibre and cotton wadding.

Cotton inner filling. 2017 – 2018.

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Dwelling Series

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Masterworks Gallery
November 2017

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Daybreak Textile Study Panel

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Rannoch Estate
From 'Vanished Delft'
February 2017Photographs by Samuel Hartnett

At a recent talk for Objectspace’s National Symposium on Craft, Applied Arts and Design at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Areez Katki described himself as a practitioner of the applied arts with a specific interest in textiles and apparel. He made a distinction between the craftsperson couturier and the contemporary fashion designer, who encourages consumption.

“There is often little need in the life of an average person for thirty sub-standard sweaters and five amazing ones,” he noted, charactarising contemporary “applied arts hierarchy,” as having, “industrialised the game and made it less personal … I’d rather just create. With my own two hands.”

Extracted from curatorial notes by Anna Miles

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Daybreak Textile Study Panel

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Rannoch Estate
From 'Vanished Delft'
February 2017Photographs by Samuel Hartnett

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Bask Hat Series (I-II)

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Collaboration with Godmother
February 2017* (I) & December 2017 (II)

*Presented at Allpress Gallery

Crafted as an ongoing collaborative series using carefully sourced textiles that are treated and overdyed by Kirsty Cameron of Godmother. Each bask hat panel has been individually hand-embroidered by Katki using a close set of of needlework drawing techniques. Bonded, lined & constructed in collaboration with Godmother.

As a practice in mindful observation of the spaces around him, Areez participates in a daily ritual that involves a documentation of rudimentary forms and linear movements. These studies attempted to record synaesthesic experiences that a body might have when it transits between natural and urban spaces. All studies for this Shirt Series were initially made on cotton paper using aquatint pigment & ink - using a refined palette of 5 colours that were predetermined through collaboration with Sherie Muijs.

These studies were then transcribed from paper to Lithuanian linen textiles through the process of hand-embroidery using 100% French cotton thread. Pocket panels for Shirts No. 21 and 22 are placed as pairs - otherwise known as a Diptych. While Shirt Dress No. 23 is a fully embroidered garment, freely exploring the playful nature of Katki's artwork. Through the hand-worked treatment of each panel and the meticulous construction of the shirts they are placed with, one might consider how this process challenges the fading presence of fine craft in relation to contemporary design.

Digitally scanned wrapping paper produced exclusively for Simon James Design.

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Howick Beach, 25th December 2015

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Commission
Simon James Design
December 2016

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Constantinople Dress & Cordoba Diptych

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Beauty Is In The Street
Objectspace
August – September 2016Curated by Elle Loui August

The colour planes of these handmade textile panels explore synaesthesia based on experiences recollected from the Katki’s time in Istanbul. Thrace and Anatolia are two continental land masses on either side of the Bospherous River, separating Asia from Europe. Living and working in Istanbul resulted in daily ferry trips between two continents and experiencing vivid juxtapositions of coexisting cultures.

From the 'Textile + Form' Series, remnants of handwoven upholstery textiles were discovered upon extensive social and historic research while he lived in Madrid. A study of their historic techniques led to acquiring intriguing curtain samplers and the variations of textiles which were hand-crafted between 1940-1970 at Casa Hernanz in Madrid. Such samplers were carefully composed with hand-embroidery based on architectural lines extracted from cities around Spain.

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Constantinople Dress & Cordoba Diptych

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Beauty Is In The Street
Objectspace
August – September 2016Curated by Elle Loui August

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Textile + Form Series

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MRKT
All Press Gallery
February 2016

A series of linear architectural studies on repurposed Spanish upholstery textiles.

Sourced during Katki’s years in Madrid where he accessed and repurposed remnants of iconic household textiles from 1944 to the mid-1970’s, which are no longer in production.